Hit my 500th bumper repair today and I finally learned to stop overthinking plastic welds

I've been doing this for about 6 years now, and 500 bumpers is a weird milestone to keep track of but I started counting when I was bored one day. The big surprise was realizing that my first 200 or so bumpers I was way too careful with the plastic welding - trying to make every crack look perfect from the back side. Somewhere around bumper 300 I stopped caring as much about the back and focused on getting the front smooth. My redo rate actually went down after that. Anyone else find that you get worse at something before you get better?

2 comments

2 Comments

charles91916d ago

Funny how that works, isn't it? The more you sweat the small stuff the more you mess up the big picture. Had a similar thing happen when I started rebuilding these old mowers a few years back. I was so careful about every single bolt and washer that the actual engine work suffered. After about the fifth rebuild it finally clicked that the back half doesn't have to look factory new, it just has to hold tight and not leak. The front is what pays the bills and what the customer sees.

christopher40215d ago

Yeah it's all about learning where the line is. I've stripped down enough engines to know the hidden stuff can be a little rough as long as the seals are good and the threads aren't stripped out. The real trick is knowing which bolts are structural and which are just holding trim or covers on. Once you figure that out, you save hours of polishing junk that nobody will ever see. The customers only care that it starts and runs clean. They never look at the underside.